With the fast development of the Internet and the popularization of large-screen multifunctional mobile phones, a great amount of mobile data multimedia services and various high bandwidth multimedia services have emerged, such as video conferences, television broadcast, video on demand, advertisements, network education, interactive games, etc, which not only satisfy the continuously-increasing service requirements of mobile subscribers, but also bring a new service growth point to mobile operators. These mobile data multimedia services require a plurality of subscribers to be capable of receiving the same data at the same time and have the characteristics of large amount of data, long duration and sensitivity to a time delay, compared with common data services.
In order to utilize mobile network resources effectively, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) propose a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), which is the technology capable of transmitting data from one data source to a plurality of targets, realizes the sharing of network resources, including a Core Network and an Access Network, and improves the utilization rate of network resources, especially that of air interface resources. The MBMS defined by the 3GPP can realize multicast and broadcast of plain-text and low-speed information as well as that of high-speed multimedia services, and provides various abundant videos, audios and multimedia services, which undoubtedly conforms to the development tendency of mobile data in the future and brings better service prospects to the development of 3rd Generation (3G).
An MBMS Control Channel (MCCH, Multicast Control Channel) in LTE Rel-8 is designed into a layered structure, wherein a Primary MCCH (P-MCCH) is used for bearing signaling of the P-MCCH, which is known as primary multicast control signaling; and a Secondary MCCH (S-MCCH) is used for bearing signaling of the S-MCCH, which is known as secondary multicast control signaling. It is prescribed in the LTE Rel-8 that scheduling information of one or two P-MCCHs is indicated on a Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH), wherein one P-MCCH is of a single-cell mode and transmitted on a DownLink-Shared Channel (DL-SCH), and the other P-MCCH is of a multi-cell mode and transmitted on a Multicast Channel (MCH). Indication information of the S-MCCH can be borne in the P-MCCH so as to be helpful to discover the S-MCCH. Control signaling related to a service in a Multicast/Broadcast over Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) area is borne in the P-MCCH of the multi-cell mode, and the control signaling illustrates an effective MBMS service and other information which does not include time-frequency resource distribution information of services in the area. In the latest work item description of LTE Rel-9, the description about an MCCH is that the MCCH does not support the amalgamation of MBSFNs and may not consider the primary-secondary structure.
For a certain MBMS, a plurality of events may exist, such as start of an MBMS conversation, change of an MBMS Radio Bearer (RB), stop of the MBMS, etc. In general, User Equipment (UE) does not know when the events may happen. In order to decrease the power consumption of UE and realize Discontinuous Reception (DRX) at the UE, it is impractical for the UE to monitor an MCCH continuously, so, a notification mechanism for an information change of an MCCH is required to be designed, so that the UE can only monitors changed MCCH information. At present, the LTE system has no solution to the notification mechanism for an information change of an MCCH.